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> pales in comparison It's not a competition... To acknowledge one problem does not mean ignoring others. There is very real discrimination against people of A

• deleted 9y ago
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• wallace_f 9y ago
  The discrimination against Asians is in some cases arguably not that much worse than discrimination against Whites, or even sometimes data shows Whites are discriminated against more. Looking at LizzyM scores, for the most part Whites and Asians receive similar acceptance rates with similar scores, but in some cases Asians receive preference. You can see this w/ scores about 520 and 3.8(1). However, Asians are admitted as a far greater proportion of their race than Whites. Asians are about 5% of US population, but can make up over 40% of incoming classes in med school, while Whites, who are over 60% of the US population, were only 37%, in this typical example at Northwestern(1). Blacks, through affirmative action, enjoy a relatively equal proportion of matriculants as Whites, even though Blacks score on average many standard deviations lower than Whites and Asians. In many cases, a majority of Blacks are accepted with scores that Whites and Asians have, as data shows, a 0% chance of acceptance with. So what is fair? Right now, it is hardest to get in to med school as a White, but that is so extremely politically incorrect that no one dare say it. www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/admissions/how-to-apply/class-profile.html https://schools.studentdoctor.net/lizzym_score https://schools.studentdoctor.net/lizzym_score
  • Osmium 9y ago
    > So what is fair? Isn't that the toughest question? I don't know what the answer is. I don't know where I stand on affirmative action: in any given instant, it seems unfair, but in a historical context it seems necessary that affirmative action should happen until the point where the damage done in the past has been undone, and we can have equal opportunities. LBJ's words resonate with me on this: > That beginning is freedom; and the barriers to that freedom are tumbling down. Freedom is the right to share, share fully and equally, in American society--to vote, to hold a job, to enter a public place, to go to school. It is the right to be treated in every part of our national life as a person equal in dignity and promise to all others. > But freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: Now you are free to go where you want, and do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please. > You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, "you are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe that you have been completely fair. > Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk through those gates. Source: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=27021 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=27021
    • wallace_f 9y ago
      It's difficult because these injustices did actually happen, and were terrible, but they are not happening today. Meanwhile there is enough injustice in the world right now make any good-hearted person's head spin. I really believe the real problem was not fixed. We need to not just ensure, but try to maximize opportunity for all people, and not limit any group to it. Instead, everything is focused on tail-end adjustments that are neither fair nor optimal for maximizing opportunity and prosperity. I wanted MLK's idea of a colorblind world where no one is judged based on your skin, but we've gone so far down this rabbit hole that what we are in fact doing is this very thing! Yet no one dare say it as it is so incredibly politically incorrect to discuss it with honesty. If you want honesty, look at banking, government, academia, and media, and see which race has orders of magnitude disproportionate representation.
      • 9y ago
• curun1r 9y ago
  The part that gets missed in most affirmative action discussions is the value of constituting class that is diverse goes beyond the value to individuals that are chosen despite lower objective selection criteria (GPA, SAT, etc). It also benefits the majority students who do get admitted. University is a time to develop your thinking and students learn from their classmates arguably as much as they learn from their teachers. Studying slavery in an American History course was substantively different, for me, because I had African-American classmates that were able to comment on the lingering legacy of slavery from a perspective that I or any other white person could never get on our own. Had I only had white an Asian classmates, there would have been a far greater uniformity of thought and I would have had fewer of my preconceived notions challenged. I will say that I find coarsely-grouped ethnicity to be a terribly reductionist way to achieve that diversity. That we group East Asians, South Asians and Southeast Asians together makes very little sense to me since I know these groups to have vastly different backgrounds, perspectives and opportunities. Grouping an American white person together with someone raised in Russia is also, similarly, nonsensical in my mind, as is grouping African-Americans with people born and raised in Africa. Genetic diversity is not the same as real diversity. But if Universities allow their enrollment to become 1 or 2 dimensional, they do a disservice not only to people who are disadvantaged by systemic challenges (the ones traditionally seen as the beneficiaries of affirmative action) but also to those in majority groups that would receive a more sheltered education.
• smrtinsert 9y ago
  There is much more at play in college admissions than test scores. If you were only to accept academic criteria then the best high schools in the country would essentially be the feeder for all the ivy leagues. College applications are necessarily subjective. You don't get to go to Harvard because you got straight A's in your AP biology class - that is absolutely ludicrous. You go because you intend to effect change in the world and you reflect the values of a the venerable institution. That - or your parents are rich and influential. The real story of discrimination in college admissions is the blatant influence of money. But please continue with your Jeff Sessions talking points.